Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Europe Blames Charlton Heston For VT Killings

Well, it took just one day, but the European press is already weighing in on the Virginia Tech killings. And apparently Charlton Heston is to blame, according to Der Spiegel. Forgive a brief straying from Freemasonry here, but I am curious:

Spare us the European sanctimony over violence and murder. There's plenty of bloody hands all around the world. Madmen can appear at any time, anywhere. And Germans should know that more than anyone.

The average kid in the 1940s - or for that matter, the 1840s - had far easier access to guns than children do today. (When I was at the University of Southern California, there were still rules on the books from the 1800s that firearms had to remain holstered while attending class.) Yet how many gun-toting kids can you find a record of attacking their school prior to the 1990s? And with all the hand wringing about "machine guns easier to get than a drivers license," Cho Seung-Hui used a .22 pistol and a 9mm pistol, not a machine gun.

It is the coarsening of the culture, the raising of children by television and daycare, single parent families or parents too wrapped up in pursuing their careers to notice their kids are slipping into darkness. And the ceaseless violence that fills 225 digital channels, all day, all night. It is the repeated watching of Hostel, Saw, Texas Chainsaw Massacres, and their hundreds of shootings, choppings, beheadings, impalings, dismemberings and slow-motion bloodletting – all trying to out-gross the last ones – that have made three generations of kids increasingly insensate to real-life horror. Like the music companies that rake in the cash from insulting, coarse, rude, lewd and crude "artists," likewise to blame are the movie studios that crank out "grindhouse" pictures (that make less money every year), with every more carnage.

Sorry, but anyone who thinks that gun violence can be stopped by the simple expedient of banning guns is living in a dream world. There is no truism so true as "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." Look at the gun violence statistics in England and Australia, if you want a good idea of what happens when law-abiding citizens are banned from owning guns. Then look at the number of burglaries, robberies, and home invasions in the States that are stopped every year just because the homeowner or business proprieter had a weapon, was trained in its use, and wasn't afraid to use it to defend himself and his property.

One student or faculty member with a gun on his hip could have put paid to the VT gunman. Would there still have been deaths? Probably. But I'll bet there wouldn't have been 32 of them in two separate incidents on opposite ends of campus an hour apart. The fact is that we'll never know, because VT in its infinite utopian "can't we all just get along" wisdom had enacted an absolute ban on anyone but law enforcement personnel carrying weapons on its campus. And we saw how well that ban worked with Mr. Cho Seung-Hui, didn't we?

The intellectual dishonesty Bro. Hodapp is referring to comes about when people insist that blanket gun bans will stop these one-off incidents from occuring. That's nonsense. Criminals will always be able to get guns, even if guns are banned...that's why they're called criminals.

I agree, in general terms with what Nathan wrote.The question, althought, in my opinion, is not allow or ban guns.Extreme solutions are always bad!I am satisfied with the sistem we have in my country (Portugal):a) guns 7.65 mm or .45 or more are exclusively autorized to the army and police officers;b) Private citizens can possess and carry guns up to 6.35 mm or .38, if registered and having a permit issued by the Chief of Police.The permit is issued if the citizen has a clean criminal record and justifies the need to carry a gun.c) Private citizens can possess IN THEIR HOMES registered guns up to 6.35 mm or .38. A permit is issued without the need to justify the possesion. in this case, when the citizen moves, a police officer carries the gun from the previous house to the new one.So, there is not a irrestrict right to carry a gun. One only can do it if justifiably autorized to.This allows the police to easily confiscate the guns ilegally carried. And, most of all, there is not the culture of the right to carry a gun.I prefer this culture about guns...Unfortunately, there is no sistem to stop 100 % violence and crime. There is no miraculous solution. One can just axpect to have a sistem that helps to control and maintains as low as possible violence and crime. And, once again, I think it is a better idea to develop the culture that guns are only to be carried by those who really need to carry them. The bottom line is: it is better if society undertands that a gun is NOT a normal and natural object to carry.But that's only my opinion...

There is nothing extreme about allowing guns. Virgina is a shall-issue concealed-carry state. The only reason guns can't be carried on the VT campus is that VT has a rule that says you can be expelled for carrying. The extreme position in Virginia is the VT position.

Millions of Americans are perfectly comfortable carrying firearms, and millions of Americans have permits that allow them to do exactly that. University regulations should not be allowed to trump state law. Period.

ATTENTION!Kindly sign your comment posts. Anonymous postings on Masonic topics have the same status as cowans and eavesdroppers, as far as I am concerned, and may be deleted if I don't recognize you or if I'm in a grumpy mood.

Freemasonry is...

Freemasonry is the world's largest, oldest and best-known gentleman's fraternity. It is based on the medieval stonemason guilds who built the great castles and cathedrals of Europe. Modern Freemasons use the tools, traditions and terminology of those stonemasons as allegories for building temples in the hearts of men. It's said that we are a secret society. We do indeed have secrets—secrets that each individual man has to discover for and about himself. At its core, Freemasonry is simply an attempt to make the world a better place, one man at a time. For that man, it can become as simple or as complicated as he himself desires. It's not for everybody. Maybe it's for you.

"Brother Chris Hodapp's [blog]...is thought provoking and is often the first place on the web where new ideas and matters of interest are posted."

He spent twenty three years in advertising as a commercial filmmaker for Dean Crow Productions, shooting and editing close to 1,000 commercials, music videos and feature films. He has written scripts for corporate and non-profit clients, and his voice has appeared in many television and radio commercials.

Chris has attended Indiana University, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles Valley College, California State University at Northridge, and Indiana/Purdue University at Indianapolis.

As a Freemason, he is a Past Master of Broad Ripple Lodge #643 and of Lodge Vitruvian #767, Free & Accepted Masons of the State of Indiana. He is an honorary member of Vincennes Lodge No. 1, Plymouth-Kilwinning Lodge #149, Ancient Landmarks Lodge #319, Garfield Lodge #569, and Logan Lodge #575 in Indiana, African Lodge #459, Prince Hall Affiliation, in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Grand Lodge of New Mexico AF&AM.

He was the editor and a contributor to "Laudable Pursuit: A 21st Century Response to Dwight Smith"by the Knights of the North, a Masonic leadership think-tank. He has written for Indianapolis Monthly, Masonic Magazine, Templar History, the Scottish Rite Journal, the Knight Templar Magazine, the Indiana Freemason , the Phylaxis, and many other publications.

He has appeared on the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, and the American Heroes Channel. Hodapp and Von Kannon also developed episode outlines for the History Channel program, Brad Meltzer's Decoded in 2010, and Chris contributed material on conspiracies and secret societies for TruTV.

His most recent book, "Deciphering the Lost Symbol," was published in 2009.

He and Alice live in Indianapolis with their very French poodle, Wiley.

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